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A Charm of Hummingbirds

Intro

Because these tiny and beautiful creatures are so rarely seen in 1986 I decided to attempt to attract them to our location in Salt Springs, Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Canada. 

Starting off the first year with a few birds the video below will show my success in creating several large Charms of Hummingbirds. (A large number of Hummingbirds is known as a Charm of Hummingbirds)

Hummingbirds are BIG eaters. No animal on earth has a faster metabolism-roughly 100 times that of an elephant. Hummingbirds burn food so fast they often eat 1.5 to 3 times their body weight in food per day! In order to gather enough nectar, hummingbirds must visit hundreds of flowers every day.

A Ruby-throated Hummingbird weighs about 3 gram, or 1/10 an ounce. If you assume the bird eats twice its weight a day in nectar, and that it gets all its food from the feeder, that's 2/10 an ounce per day per bird. A 16-ounce feeder could thus feed 80 birds a day, assuming no leakage and no other entities are also feeding. Our Hummingbirds this year are consuming two and sometimes three liters a day.

Here are the 21 Hummingbirds found in the U.S. and Canada. All are western birds with the exception of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird and the Bahama Woodstar:

Common Hummingbirds:
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  (east)

Black-chinned Hummingbird  (low mountains)
Costa's Hummingbird  (dry areas)
Anna's Hummingbird (west coast)
Broad-tailed Hummingbird (mountains)
Calliope Hummingbird (mountains)
Rufous Hummingbird (pacific northwest to Alaska)
Allen's Hummingbird (California coast)

Southwest Arizona Specialties:
Berylline Hummingbird (very rare)
Violet-crowned Hummingbird
Lucifer Hummingbird
Broad-billed Hummingbird
White-eared Hummingbird (very rare)
Blue-throated Hummingbird
Magnificent Hummingbird
Plain-capped Starthroat (very rare)

Texas Specialties:
Green Violet-ear (very rare)
Green-breasted Mango (very rare)
Buff-bellied Hummingbird

California and Florida Specialties:
Xantus's Hummingbird (CA - very, very rare)
Bahama Woodstar (FL - very, very rare)